COMMENTARY

After viewing “social dilemma,” a Netflix documentary, I was enlightened to what is taking place in the social-media platforms and how they are influencing–even manipulating–our very ideas and courses of action.

A few early Silicon Valley developers have come forward to lay out the ideas behind Facebook, Twitter, Snap Chat, You Tube and other social-media platforms, saying they were initially developed to connect family and friends, far and near, quicker and easier. But the initially beneficial and well-meaning purposes of apps like Facebook, Twitter and the like has boiled down to 52 individuals whose ability to manipulate the algorithms which determine most of what the public sees and hears on social media, may ultimately be the demise of democracy. There is certainly the possibility that these 52 people could sway a nation’s “point of view” and purposefully affect a presidential election.

For what? Money and power. Social media has become an unregulated gold mine, producing trillions of dollars for Silicon Valley tech giants and their investors.

This handful of people is determining how the whole world twirls based on what algorithms have been placed within the program. They are imposing their ideas and platforms on all who use their outlets. Every time you click on something or answer someone or play a game, they are watching and building your profile so they can manipulate your decisions.

While this worked for a while, time passed and the developers added more sophisticated algorithms to the mix, making social media the prime place to advertise, and market new ideas, political opinions, what and who is important, until the developers discovered the computers started taking on that action without the help of its handlers. This is where is gets sticky.

Do you remember hearing about AI – Artificial Intelligence? It’s not a robot, it’s a computer. A computer designed to gather information and profile every person on the planet. Sounds like Sci-Fi doesn’t it? According to these early developers, what was created to do good things has taken on a life of its own. And it’s a dark life.

Because the computers or AIs are taking on this behavior, profiling becomes more in-depth. These units not only know your personal identity, family, friends, your likes and dislikes, they have developed your psychological profile. Computer programs now know your response to things and how to manipulate you into action or inaction. It is so well developed that your decisions are no longer your decisions. They have been placed there through subliminal suggestion designed to fit your thought process and psychology.

I know many of you newcomers are thinking I have whacked out or something, but this is not my discussion, this is the message provided to those of us who have been using social media for some time and have noticed a change in how we relate to each other these days. Some of us are occasional users, some use it daily, then there is the group that uses electronic devices and computer programs on a continuous basis without lifting their eyes from the screen. Those are the people these developers are most concerned about because they are the most influenced and will be at the helm of our country very soon.

It is alarming the change to society the use of social media and electronic devices has brought about.

How do we change what comes next? It has been suggested to close your social media accounts, turn off notifications and locations on all your devices. This will minimize your exposure to uninvited information and input.

I noted how these early developers handle their own devices and social media with their own children. Each one said they do not allow their children on any social media at all, and they have turned all notifications and locators off on their own devices.

What was once intended to connect people has now become a multi-trillion dollar-a-year business for Silicon Valley tech giants and their investors.

They have no incentive to relinquish any intrusive algorithm or program. Why should they? They are making bank off of a new commodity – people’s data – which we have been giving unwittingly.

This is blatant exploitation done under the guise of social interaction. Maybe now is the time to take back control.